Golden Hamster, Fancy hamster, Teddy bear hamster, Standard hamster
The Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) is a small rodent belonging to the hamster subfamily, Cricetinae. In 1930, Professor Aharoni captured a female Syrian hamster (otherwise called Golden or Teddy bear hamster) with her twelve pups in Aleppo (Syria). Since then, this species has become a highly popular household pet throughout western states. In fact, all Syrian hamsters that are now kept as pets, originate from this single captured female. Their numbers have been declining in the wild and thus, wild Syrian hamsters are now considered Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Originally, Syrian hamsters occurred in just one color - the mixture of brown, black, and gold, but they have since developed a variety of color and pattern mutations, including cream, white, blonde, cinnamon, tortoiseshell, black, three different shades of gray, dominant spot, banded, and dilute. Like most members of the subfamily, Syrian hamsters have expandable cheek pouches, which extend from their cheeks to their shoulders.
The natural range of Syrian hamsters is a quite small area in the Middle East, restricted to northern Syria and southern Turkey. Populations in the wild are most commonly found in fertile, agricultural, and densely populated areas on the Aleppinian plateau (Syria). Historically preferred habitats of this species were steppes, sand dunes, edges of deserts, and other warm, dry areas.
Syrian hamsters are solitary animals that normally don't tolerate individuals of their kind, although they socialize during the mating season. They are highly territorial, scent-marking their home ranges with glands, found on their flanks. When scent marking, they simply rub their flanks against a substrate, thus leaving the scent, which can convey various types of information, even allowing them to identify individuals. This species is crepuscular and nocturnal and spends its daytime hours in burrows. During the nighttime hours, they forage, taking multiple trips between food sources and their burrow to carry and store the food in their dwellings. Each hamster travels as much as 8 miles (12.9 km) per evening to find and cache food. Syrian hamsters are known to communicate aggression through teeth chattering.
Syrian hamsters are omnivores and consume a wide variety of food, including seeds, nuts as well as insects such as ants, flies, cockroaches, and even wasps.
Syrian hamsters are polygynous animals, which means that one male mates with multiple females. Breeding in this species depends on photoperiods or day length: Syrian hamsters breed when photoperiods are long. During each breeding season, females are able to produce young approximately every month. The gestation period is 16 days, yielding 8-12 altricial young that are born with closed eyes. The pups are cared by their mother, whereas the father usually doesn't participate in rearing the young. After producing a large litter, some females may reduce the litter size by cannibalism. Females in the wild usually do it during food shortages, while those in captivity display cannibalism as a response to anthropogenic disturbance. The pups open their eyes at 12-14 days old and are weaned at 19-21 days of age. They become reproductively mature at one month of age.
The population of this species in Syria is threatened by the loss of its natural habitat due to the development of human settlements. In February, when their burrow entrances begin to emerge, these animals are heavily trapped and poisoned throughout their range as serious pest species. During May-June, when fields are harvested, burnt, and ploughed, sheep clean out remaining vegetation, leaving Syrian hamsters without cover, nutrition, and winter food supply.
The IUCN Red List and other sources don’t provide the number of the Syrian hamster total population size. Currently, this species is classified as Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List, and its numbers today are decreasing.
These animals are key prey species for many local predators. Moreover, Syrian hamsters act as seed dispersers due to feeding upon various seeds and grains that are occasionally lost while stored. And finally, burrows of these rodents are used by other species, including toads.